The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-03-17
STEALING A COAT OF ARMS.
What Makes up the Library of a Car
riagemaker and How it Is Used.

What Makes up the Library of a Car
riagemaker and How it Is Used.
1t is not generally known, but it is
nevertheless a fact that every large car
riage manufacturing establishment in this
country has q library The work of only
two authors are in this library and these
are the production of Mr. Burke and Mr..
Lodge. ''Burke's Peerage and Baronet-
age Lodges book of the same title and
"Burke's General Armory'' are all that
is needed, but they are indispensable.
A man on whom fortune has smiled is
having a carriage built. It is to be a
heavy numbering affair and guaranteed
to have look of ancient responsibility
about it before it comes out of the shop.
Now he, sensible man, had intended to
have his cipher on the panels but the
ladies of the family are more ambitious
and keep at him until, In q moment OF
weakness, he consents to decorate his fam
lily carriage with a coat of arms. The
next question is how to get one. Hereto
fore he and his ancestors have struggled
along without armorial bearings and
never especially felt the need of them.
But now things are changed. Ifhe lived
in Brazil he would endow hospital and
the emperor would make him baron
with coat of arms of great compleXity.
If he were an Englishman he might do a
pedigree and coat of arms from the Col
lege of HeraIds and write Sir before his
name.
But being an American there is no way
for him to get q coat of arms except tC
steal it, and so the respectable old gen
tleman is driven to the first theft of his
life. The New York College of Heraldry
being no longer in existence, he cOnfides
in the carriage manufact urer. The car
:,
the seclusion of his private Office the coat
of arms of some more or less noble lord is
appropriated, to be subsequently trans
ferred to the rich mans family coach
These people are rather particular about
their arms when they once get started in
the selection. Say, for instance, that the
man who wants a coat of arms is named
Smith. The carriage man opens his
heraldic record and reads: "Smith, Ed
ward Augustus Patrick Peter, First Bar
onet of MudtOwne, County Kerry Ire
land" mo, no." says the rich man.
"Our family are English by descent"
A few more pages are turned over and
then under a menagerie of heraldiC
animals the carriage manufacturer reads;
"Billingsgate, Marquis of (Smith FitZ
PlantageneD, James Augustus Douglas
George, Marquis and Earl, Baron Smith
of County of York. The marquis assumed
in 1876 by royal license the additional sur
name of Fitz Plantagenet for himself and
his issue and quartered the Plantagenet
arms with his own
g 3h! that must be the ONE says the
seeker after a coat of arms. Il have
heard that our family came from York
shire.'
And so the arms of the Marquis of Bill
Hngsgate blaze on the panels of the new
carriage when it rolls along the avenue.
Appropriations of coats of arms would
make themselves less absurd if they
would read rudimentar book on her
aldry before they made the appropriation.
For instance, Mr.. Smith, in appropriate
ing the coat of arms of the ''Most Honor
able the Marquis of Billngsgate, " takes
not only the arms of Smith but the arms
of Fitz Plantagenet and likewise the sup
porters which can only be used by peer
of the realm. He surmOunts the whole
with the cap and cOronet of marquis
and any one versed in such matters would
suppose that peer was riding in the car
riage instead of plain Mr.. Smith. Now ii
Mr. Smith did really belong to the family
of the marquis, rs he did not, he would
be entitled only to the arms for Smith
without the cOronet, the supporters or the
motto New York Tribune.